wind mobile

Canada's WIND Mobile has added the HTC 8S to their lineup, available in blue. The 8S will run you $299 outright, or as cheap as free, depending on which WINDTab plan you choose. It joins the Nokia Lumia 710 as WIND Mobile's second Windows Phone.

The HTC 8S is a mid-range Windows Phone 8 handset, offering up a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, 4” display (WVGA), Bluetooth 3.1, 512MB RAM, WiFi, non-replaceable 1700mAh battery, and Beats Audio. It also has 4GB storage, which is expandable via MicroSD slot. Check out our review for the full lowdown on the 8S.

Good news if you're on WIND Mobile as you'll reportedly be getting the Nokia Lumia 710 sometime in the next few weeks, at least according to Canadian phone site Mobile Syrup.

Not much else is revealed like pricing but the site is promising more details soon from their tipster who is supplying the information. The Lumia 710 has a snappy 1.4GHz CPU, a 3.7" ClearBlack screen and a 5MP camera making it an ideal budget phone for many.

Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising as WIND runs the same 1700 AWS bands as US T-Mobile, meaning they tend to mirror each other for releases: TMo gets the Radar and so does WIND. This just seems to be another case of the same.

WINDtab+, which is where a 'tab' is created that the customer pays off 10% of of their bill per month (e.g.: monthly bill of $40, $4 extra will be charged a month to go towards the tab to pay for the handset), provides consumers a convenient way to afford and wield smartphones.

This is superb news for Canadians, who (not so long ago) were cursing at both Microsoft and carriers for not having a good selection of Windows Phones for consumers. As you can see in the above photo, Wind Mobile is advertising the HTC Radar in newspapers illustrating the attractive price.

Head on over to Wind Mobile's website to check out plan pricing and other details. It should be noted that Wind Mobile operates their service on AWS bands, though the carrier does hold a roaming arrangement with Rogers for areas outside its coverage, as well as T-Mobile for the U.S.